Wednesday, September 22

I've taken a little video of Drew over the past few days, to give you an idea of how Drew is doing with his language. He will turn four years old this month, and has had his Cochlear Implants activated for nearly three years, three months.

It is really hard for me to believe that this whole hearing journey began nearly four years ago. If only I would have known then, what I know now. It would have saved a lot of tears.

Saturday, September 18

Drew attended his first Ohio State football game this weekend! We made the mistake of telling Drew on Wednesday that we had tickets to this weekends game. He was instantly excited, and has been asking each morning if it was time to go to the game. Today, when we opened his bedroom door, he simply said, "Terrelle Pryor?" To which I nodded, and Drew's grin lit up the whole room.

Drew's love for all sports is infections. His love for football is awesome. Drew's Dad and I are really enjoying sharing our love of everything Ohio State with our little boy. Today, we introduced him to "Skull Session", stadium hot dogs, The Best Damn Band in the Land, Carmen Ohio, the Buckeye Bounce and an Ohio State Victory.

Saturday, September 11

It's a big day in Buckeye Country, as we face off with the Miami Hurricanes later today. To get into the game day spirit, we're baking some yummy football treats. Which also happens to be a great language activity for Drew!

Drew is counting the number of cupcakes we are making. We also discussed the colors of the cupcake wrappers, and counted the number of yellow, red, pink, etc. Great for pre-math skills!

While we've known for several years now, through all of our therapy session, that baking provides a rich source of language, it hasn't really worked with a crazy boy that can't sit still for more than a minute. However, as Drew is nearing his fourth birthday (gasp), his attention span is growing. He's actually really enjoying baking, among other things, now.

Today, we talked about the ingredients that go into the cupcake mix. We counted. We sorted. We asked questions that made Drew recall what we had done, each step along the way. (Drew, did we add the eggs or the butter first?) He had fun, and in no way knew he was doing work!

Welcome!

Our son Drew was born in September 2006 with profound hearing loss in both ears, which means he is deaf. His hearing loss was caused by Connexin 26. At 8 1/2 months of age, Drew became the youngest child in Ohio to receive simultaneous, bilateral cochlear implants.

This blog is a record of our efforts to "turn on" Drew's ears, and our daily adventures with our bionic boy, and his older sister.